Letter to Mayor Daugherty to Investigate Urban Renewal
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Letter to Mayor Daugherty to investigate urban renewal Virginia Daugherty, Mayor Charlottesville, Virginia I would like to express a few principles I hope will guide us in the 21st century. They were hotly debated in the 18th century. 1. It is not eminent domain to take private property into public custody and then sell it back to the private sector. 2. It is not eminent domain to convert residential property to residential property, or to convert business property to business property. 3. It is not eminent domain to take property for a non-public, non-civic use. 1. Property cannot be taken by referendum. 2. The majority cannot vote to disempower a minority. 3. The Constitution exists to protect individual liberty and property against majority opinion. To take property for a non-civic use without the consent of the property owner: 1. The owner must first be accused publicly of a crime. 2. The accused owner is assumed to be innocent until a judge or jury decides guilt. 3. Assets cannot be seized or frozen until a guilty verdict has been rendered. 4. The accused has the right to remain silent. That silence cannot be construed as guilt. 5. The burden of proof is on the accuser. 6. The accused property owner has the right to cross-examine his accusers. 7. The accused is entitled to a speedy trial, but also a reasonable to assemble a legal defense. 8. If the owner cannot afford an attorney, a judge will appoint one at taxpayer expense. 9. The amount of liberty or property taken by the court should fit the crime. This complicated procedure is called due process. It has been the supreme law of this nation since 1787. Madame Mayor, I regret to inform you that Vinegar Hill and Garrett Street were destroyed for a non-public use, without the consent of property owners, and without due process of law. Today that property is not even under public ownership. Justice delayed is justice denied. Therefore, please begin an investigation of the legality of urban renewal and neighborhood revitalization before anymore witnesses die or move away and before anymore documents are lost or destroyed. Let us heal these wounds. Let us make sure these atrocities never happen again. Thank you. Monday June 5, 2000. "PROPERTY STREET" for Sally Hemings and Laura Dowell Naming of 9th/10th Street Connector in Charlottesville To remind us of historic differences and similarities, the Ninth-Tenth Street Connector should be named in honor of two people. Sally Hemings and Laura Dowell. A black woman in white country and a white woman in a black neighborhood. A slave who was property and a free woman who slaved to own property. We are familiar with Sally Hemings. Mrs. Dowell was born to poverty in Nelson county in 1905. She had a son out of wedlock at the age of 15. He became a chief warrant officer. The next time she had a child, she was over 21, married, and had the right to vote. Altogether she had 12 children. Only 6 lived past the first year. With a third grade education, she worked many jobs while she rented. She sewed and cleaned for rich property owners for half a century. In 1960, after a car accident, a broken arm, and a one thousand dollar insurance settlement, she bought a hundred year old house on a white street in black neighborhood south of downtown. Her large house had indoor plumbing, heat, electricity, a refrigerator and telephone. It was shelter for an extended family. The estate was in compliance with every local ordinance, state and federal law. At the age of 65, when she was ready to retire, a Democratic city council took her dream house and retirement home for urban renewal. She liked living in the historic Garrett Street neighborhood. At the age of 92, she passed away in a nursing home against her wishes. Sally Hemings and Laura Dowell were treated with disrespect from the day they were born until the day they died. The naming of Tenth Street should be a covenant, a promise to Fifeville that the condition of a building is not justification to take the land on which it sits. Tenth Street should be called Property Street. Property tax is cheaper than rent. The city has converted private property to public rentals. Rent is more expensive than property tax. Renters have no long-term security. Rent generates more revenue. Tenth Street should be named for a black woman and a white woman, a slave who was property and a free woman who slaved to own property. Call it Property Street to reassert private ownership and control of property. Monday June 5, 2000. Free Enterprise Monument Instead of Free Speech Wall As an alternative to a monument to free speech, Charlottesville should seriously consider a monument to free enterprise. We already have forums for free expression. There is a kiosk on the downtown mall. Beta Bridge is on Rugby Road. The concrete retaining wall at the student parking lot a Charlottesville High is a grafitti wall. Your newspaper prints letters from readers. The expression of ideas through spoken and written words is not in danger. Instead of memorializing the second clause of the First Amendment, the final clause of the Fifth Amendment may be overdue for a tombstone. This clause defines free enterprise. No person shall...be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation. The government can take your property by court order and for public use. The only other way the government can come into possession of your property is if you freely give or sell it to them. There is no other lawful method. Ballot initiatives and referenda cannot take property even if the vote is 99.9 percent. Public use is not the same as public good. Renewal, improvement, and revitalization are not valid reasons to take property. The intent of urban renewal was to renew the urban area, not for the public to use. Vinegar Hill was a vacant lot for twenty years after demolition. Obviously the public had no use for the property. The city should explain how poor people benefit when their property is taken and sold to rich people. City council should elaborate on why homeowners and entrepreneurs should invest in blighted neighborhoods if the government can take your property for public use and then not use it. The lingering outrage over urban renewal inspired a Live Arts play last year called Vinegar Hill. Garrett Square is also a history lesson. The property, taken for public use, is now owned by a private corporation. Crime, thought to be high before renewal, is unquestionably higher today. If entire historic neighborhoods had not been made new, there would be less clamor for historic preservation today. A free speech wall is unnecessary. A free enterprise resolution might begin to restore confidence that Charlottesville is an American city. Letter to the Editor, The Observer, February 28, 2001. Move council election to November and media coverage of candidates. Charlottesville should move council elections to November, but not for the reasons your paper states (October 17). The best reason is that increased voter turnout will bust the Democratic monopoly of city council as more people vote along party lines. With the nation and state leaning more Republican, council is unlikely to change a system that has served Democrats well for decades. Your newspaper states that "the media will pay attention" if candidates are more interesting and hold more appearances. Paying attention is not the same as media coverage. The last council election proves the point. There were six forums, nine candidates, and no debates. The most interesting candidate, the only native, struggled for coverage. Only WINA radio covered my candidacy before the first forum and throughout the campaign. I circulated several platform letters to media during two months before the official campaign kicked off. At the first forum, I accused city council of treason because of revenue sharing. I said it was taxation without representation, a crime against democracy, the highest crime in the nation. The Daily Progress reported only that I hammered on the Constitutionality of revenue sharing. No other paper reported the story. No one has refuted the charge. At the second forum, I said city council policies create a climate where serious crime flourishes and goes unreported. That same morning a school bus of students witnessed a gun fight on Hinton Avenue. I appeared on WVIR-29 because I came out to investigate from my apartment one block away. At the third forum, I related first-hand knowledge that Charlottesville High is a violent school. I was the only candidate who had attended the schools that are funded by city council. Only after these performances did the Observer invite me to write a candidate’s essay on education. I wrote about the history of Jefferson School. It was the most requested pamphlet of my campaign and added value to the Observer. At the fourth forum, I speculated a connection between pancreatic cancer and the drinking water. No one reported it. Sixteen months later, the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority has responded only with speculation that the water is safe. The last two forums were a refinement of my positions. A week before the first forum, the C-ville Weekly censored the second certified write-in candidate in the city’s history. Editor Hawes Spencer stated in writing that his paper was not covering any write-ins.